


In Defense of a Rival

by Thrushsong_kVaris



Category: Magic Kaito
Genre: Aoko is mentioned, Gen, Teenage Cruelty, ichthyophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:55:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26486023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thrushsong_kVaris/pseuds/Thrushsong_kVaris
Summary: Hakuba discovers Kuroba's ichthyophobia and is not amused. He's furious that his classmates are callous enough to use Kuroba's phobia against him and call it a prank.
Relationships: Hakuba Saguru & Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid
Comments: 8
Kudos: 84





	In Defense of a Rival

When Saguru returned to Ekoda from his most recent stay in England, he was startled to see that his entire class appeared to be gossiping eagerly, with laughter and yells of excitement adding to the din. It was odd to see such a level of disturbance in the classroom without Kuroba there to instigate the chaos. Deciding his curiosity was more important than heading to his desk (there were still eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds before homeroom would begin) he approached the nearest classmate, Yamada Masaki.

“Good morning, Yamada-san. Would you happen to know what has everyone so excited today?”

“Oh, Hakuba-san, good morning! You’ve been in England again, right? It’s a shame you missed it!”

Saguru blinked, startled by his classmate’s enthusiasm, “Is that so?”

“Yeah, it was great! You know how Aoko-chan and Kuroba-kun are childhood friends, yeah?”

He nodded in reply, wondering if Kuroba were the cause after all, “I am aware, yes.”

“Right. So, two days ago, Aoko-chan got super mad at Kuroba-kun, it wasn’t like their usual mop chases, she completely ignored him for the rest of the day,” Yamada looked expectantly at Saguru.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her do that,” he mused; Yamada appeared satisfied and continued.

“Kuroba-kun ditched before last period, like he was trying to get her to yell at him, because he’d been pranking her and stuff almost constantly before that. So at the end of class, Aoko-chan gets up and asks everyone to stay for a minute.”

He frowned slightly as Yamada paused again, “That certainly seems unusual.”

“Yeah. When Keiko-chan asked her what was going on, she said she had a plan to prank Kuroba-kun and needed the class to help.”

“Nakamori-chan planned a prank?” Saguru questioned in surprise.

Yamada looked smug, “That was our reaction too. She said something about Kuroba-kun crossing a line and emphasized that the prank would be revenge for what he’d done earlier.”

Saguru felt bemused, “What on earth did Kuroba do to her to make her react so severely?”

“Ah, sorry, I don’t really remember that part.”

He hummed in consideration, “I shall have to ask her later. So what did Nakamori-chan need help with?”

“She asked us if we could all bring a picture of a fish.”

“…what?”

Yamada nodded. “She said she’d give us a signal and then we would all take out the pictures and face them at Kuroba-kun.”

“That…doesn’t seem like much of a prank, compared to Kuroba’s chaotic antics.”

“Well, we agreed to help Aoko-chan out anyway, because we were all really curious about what she was planning. So yesterday we brought the pictures in, and before homeroom Kuroba-kun and Aoko-chan ended up doing their mop-chase thing again. But then Aoko-chan stops chasing when Kuroba-kun is in the middle of the classroom hand-standing on a desk.”

When his classmate paused again Saguru prompted, “She just stopped?”

Yamada grinned, “Right. As soon as she stopped, she gave us the signal, and we all show Kuroba-kun the pictures. And, get this, he shouted and fell off the desk! When he looked up again Aoko-chan shoved this fish plushie in his face, and Kuroba-kun actually screamed like a girl and ran away from her!”

Saguru felt himself freeze. Falling off a desk could be explained away as shock that his classmates were acting strangely, but screaming and running away? He didn’t like the implication. Yamada was still talking about how hilarious Kuroba’s reaction had been, but Saguru was no longer listening. Nakamori-chan had to have known that Kuroba was afraid of fish and how badly he would react…and yet she’d exposed that fear to the entire class and called it a prank?

“…So? What do you think? Hilarious, right?” Yamada asked.

Saguru bit back a scathing response, but before he could work out a response that didn’t include vicious insults a familiar voice called a greeting.

“Hey!” said Kuroba curiously, “What are you talking about?”

Saguru grimaced, “Ah—“

“I just got this new keychain, look!” exclaimed Yamada as he pulled an oddly shaped charm out of his pocket.

~K~

Kaito felt the blood drain from his face as his eyes caught on the brightly-colored keychain, bug-eyed and f-f-finny. The next second he was blinking in surprise at Hakuba’s back. Hakuba was honestly the last person Kaito would have expected to shield him like that, with how much the detective seemed to hate him for being unable to prove that he was KID. Kaito hesitantly reached up to grip the detective’s shoulders in silent thanks. The finny thing was suddenly shoved at his face and the next thing Kaito knew he was pressing his forehead against Hakuba’s back, tightening his grip on the detective’s shoulders in an attempt to anchor himself. He squeezed his eyes shut, futilely struggling to even out his shaky breathing. Kaito felt Hakuba’s shoulders shifting, but the detective wasn’t shaking Kaito off so he didn’t move.

“It’s gone, Kuroba,” Hakuba stated.

Kaito’s panic lessened slightly and he managed to blink his eyes open, staring down at the floor as he fought to slow his breathing. He could hear his classmate arguing with Hakuba, but the words didn’t register until Hakuba’s voice went abruptly icy with disdain.

“You disgust me. All of you.”

He looked up to see the detective sweep the room with his eyes, and from his classmate’s expressions when Hakuba looked at them, Kaito was glad he couldn’t see the detective’s face.

“Tch. It was just a prank, Hakuba,” Yamada retorted angrily.

“You think other people’s fear is amusing, Yamada?”

“It is when they’re afraid of something ridiculous like f—”

“You say that as if your own fears are any more logical.” Hakuba interrupted. “Would you call it a prank if I exposed your fear to the entire class? I’m sure the girls would be just as willing to help me as you all were to help with Nakamori-chan’s so-called prank.”

Kaito tilted his head in confusion, and blinked at the sight of Yamada’s pale face. He had no idea what fear Hakuba was talking about, but apparently Yamada did.

The room was filled with his classmates’ confused murmuring before one of them protested, “We didn’t know about that!”

Scoffing, Hakuba turned his gaze on the class again. “You think that makes you any better than Yamada? It doesn’t. Whether you knew about Kuroba’s fear or not, yesterday every single one of you saw his reaction. Your classmate fled from the room in terror, and you did nothing but laugh. You all should be thankful that Kuroba has the strength of mind to endure your thoughtless cruelty.”

Kaito tensed in surprise as the entire class flinched, blinking in confusion as Hakuba turned around and pulled him out of the room without saying another word. When they were out of earshot of the classroom (and Kaito hadn’t overheard anything helpful) he decided to break the silence. “Oi, Hakuba…why did all of them flinch like that?”

The detective glanced at him, appearing mildly surprised and then thoughtful, “Of course, you wouldn’t have considered that.” Hakuba muttered, apparently to himself, and continued, “I merely reminded them that their actions could have had grave consequences.”

Kaito just frowned at the detective; that had not been helpful in clarifying anything. He lost himself in his thoughts as Hakuba continued pulling him down the hall, trying to understand what kind of consequences the detective was talking about. (Consequences…retribution pranks? had Hakuba been planning to get the class in trouble somehow?) Kaito stumbled in surprise when they reached the shoe lockers, having been so distracted by trying to figure out what the detective had said that was so horrifying that he hadn’t noticed where Hakuba was going.

“What…why are we…?”

The detective blinked at him and said mildly, “We’re skipping today.”

“Eh?”

Hakuba raised an eyebrow at him, “It’s not as if missing the lessons will really hurt either of our grades. If I stayed much longer I would be seriously tempted to maim someone and I wasn’t about to leave you with all of _them_.”

Kaito was torn between being stunned that the rule-following Hakuba was angry enough to maim someone on his behalf and indignant that the detective thought he couldn’t deal with his classmates on his own. “I can take care of myself, Hakuba.”

“Kuroba, your entire class helped Nakamori-chan terrify you by using a severe phobia; I’m honestly shocked you came to school at all today.” Hakuba retorted, somehow managing to sound fondly exasperated.

“…not the _entire_ class,” Kaito corrected, giving the detective a pointed look.

Hakuba blinked at him for a moment and huffed in amusement, “True. So you’ll be staying with the single exception for the rest of the day.”

“…Thanks, Hakuba.” _Thank you for understanding, for defending me…_ “Hey…why _did_ you help me? I was pretty sure you hated my guts.”

“Kuroba, you’re a menace to society, but you’re not a bad person.” Hakuba smirked at him, “You being the bane of my existence doesn’t change that fact.”

Kaito gaped at the detective, stunned, before grinning mischievously, “Is that a challenge?”

Rolling his eyes, Hakuba started walking, “If I said no, would you even listen?”

“Hmm…” He walked along, pretending to be thinking it over, “probably not.”

“Then yes, it’s a challenge; being the bane of an individual’s existence isn’t all that impressive, you should broaden your horizons.”

Kaito laughed, “Well played, Hakuba.”

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my computer half-finished for at least half a year... I finally got it to cooperate! :)  
> I couldn't fit either in the actual story without making it clunky, but I'm curious to know what y'all think Yamada is afraid of and what Saguru was implying to the class right before he drags Kaito out.


End file.
